In court, while being questioned by his lawyer, Jackson said he was walking home from school on June 1 when the shooting happened. A block from his house, he saw people he wanted to avoid sitting on a porch of a home located on the 2900 block of Bloomington Avenue South. One of those people was Sykes’ brother, whom Jackson had lost to in a fight two weeks earlier. So Jackson took the alley, where he said he ran into Sykes.

Jackson said the two talked before he “shot the gun once,” and then again. Sykes suffered two gunshot wounds to his back.

The sentence meets the recommendations of the Minnesota guidelines for second-degree intentional murder when the defendant does not have a criminal history. Jackson has credit for 54 days. Restitution was also ordered for the victim’s family.